This invention relates generally to the field of insect traps, and more specifically to the field of insects traps having attractant means and pesticide means for attracting and killing flies.
Flies of all types are an annoyance, carrying and spreading harmful diseases. Flies are bothersome to humans, but the problems caused by flies are much more serious to animals. In the field of raising or keeping horses, for example, flies pose a tremendous potential for harm. The diseases and parasites spread by flies can be seriously damaging or even fatal to horses. Since horses represent a serious investment, and often an astronomical one is the case of race horses or rare breeds, it is important to develop means to safely eradicate flies in the equine environment. It is desirable to do so without having to resort to massive spraying of pesticides in the animal's living environment.
The problems are most acute in barns or stables, for the obvious reason that such a building represents a prime concentration of natural attractants for the insect. In attempting to solve the fly problem in such structures, several devices have been developed which attempt to overcome the drawbacks presented by indiscriminate use of pesticides. These devices involve housings which contain attractants to draw the flies, as well as pesticides to eradicate the flies.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,908 to Levey teaches a trap having an attractant placed within a perforated tube, this tube being coated on the outside with a sticky substance. A perforated outer tube acts as a housing, the perforations allowing flies access to the inner tube, where they become stuck in the sticky substance and eventually die.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,303 to Floyd, one of the co-inventors of the present invention. That device has an outer tube, closed at the top, with large apertures around the body of the tube. An inner tube having perforations near its top and middle is a reservoir for an attractant. Surrounding the inner tube is a sleeve coated with a pesticide. The bottom of the inner tube is formed such that the sleeve rests in a retaining member which is apertured, as is the sleeve, to allow air to flow under the bottom and into the sleeve, then into the interior of the inner tube through the middle perforations, out the upper perforations, out the top of the sleeve and down from the closed housing to exit through the apertures in the body of the outer tube. The device works to disperse the attractant by this chimney draft effect.
These devices suffer deficiencies due to their design. The Levey device does not actively diffuse the essence of the attractant but relies simply on the natural evaporation factors to spread it in the vicinity of the trap. The sticky substance loses its ability to hold flies after a short period of time. The trap is not reusable but must be completely replaced. The Floyd device, while being a dramatic improvement over the Levey type device, also has several drawbacks. The closed cap creates a circumstance where moisture from humidity, rain, cleaning hoses etc. becomes trapped in the housing, causing the material of the sleeve to deteriorate and affecting the efficiency of the pesticide. The chimney effect method of dispersion for the essence of the attractant is not the optimum method to disperse the essence, and allows the attractant in the reservoir to totally evaporate in too short a time period. The attractant often leaks into the bottom retaining member, which tends to draw the flies to this location and away from the poison on the sleeve. It has actually been shown that the device can become a breeding place due to this defect. Furthermore, replacing the attractant or the pesticide sleeve requires unscrewing the internal components from the housing, which means that the device must be placed high enough to allow room under it to remove the components. This is a drawback since flies prefer to feed on or near ground level, this being where they find their food in the natural environment. Rethreading the internal components during replacement requires careful attention and is needlessly messy.
The present invention overcomes the problems outlined above by providing a fly trap not requiring working mechanical or electrical components, the design of which provides the optimum method of attractant dispersal while at the same time conserves the total amount of attractant. The device has a substantially enclosed housing which isolates the pesticide within the device and away from unnecessary human or animal contact. Replacing the attractant or the pesticide sleeve is easily accomplished from the top of the device. The problems of moisture build-up and resulting sleeve deterioration, as well as accumulation of attractant in undesirable locations on the device, are eliminated.